Chinese wedding custom of Three Letters and Six Rites explained, and what has replaced it
My niece got married last week and I was in London to attend the wedding. It seems only yesterday that I was propping her up and burping her after she had finished her bottle. Suddenly, she was getting married.
Her husband, my nephew-in-law, is a young British man of Indian descent, and a series of traditional Indian rituals took place at the house of the groom's parents the day before the wedding.
The day began with a ritual presided over by a Hindu priest, followed by the Haldi and Mehndi ceremonies, which involve turmeric and henna pastes. There were also lots of delicious treats.
I spent a delightful day in that house in the London suburbs, a day saturated with beautiful sights, sounds and smells. For that special occasion, I wore a kurta, a traditional South Asian tunic, and was assured by the groom's family and relatives that I looked handsome in it. They were much too kind.
Indian weddings often involve a series of traditional rituals.
For Chinese weddings, the traditional 'Three Letters and Six Rites' is a series of ceremonies that were designed to ensure social recognition, family consent and spiritual blessing of the union.
The Three Letters refer to important written documents used during the wedding process: the Betrothal Letter, given by the groom's family during the engagement stage to formally propose the union; the Gift Letter, which details the items and quantities presented during the formal gift-exchange ceremony; and the Wedding Letter, presented when the groom comes to collect the bride, symbolising the official transfer of the bride to the groom's household.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Standard
8 hours ago
- The Standard
What is known about the Air India crash and its investigation
A tail of an Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane that crashed is seen stuck on a building after the incident in Ahmedabad, India, June 12, 2025. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File Photo
South China Morning Post
10 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
279 bodies found at Air India crash site, making it second worst air disaster this century
An Indian police source said on Saturday that 279 bodies had been recovered from the site where a passenger jet crashed into a residential district of the city of Ahmedabad. The revised toll from a senior officer in the city, who requested anonymity to speak to the media, raises an earlier figure of 265. This increase makes the Air India crash one of the deadliest plane disasters of the 21st century. It is second only to the 298 tally from July 17, 2014, when Malaysia Airlines flight 17 was shot down over Ukraine. Air India said there were 242 people on board the flight bound for London's Gatwick airport, only one of whom survived. 03:40 'I don't know how I'm alive': sole survivor found in Air India flight that killed 241 'I don't know how I'm alive': sole survivor found in Air India flight that killed 241 At least 38 people were killed on the ground when the plane smashed into residential buildings near the Ahmedabad airport.
South China Morning Post
16 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Chinese wedding custom of Three Letters and Six Rites explained, and what has replaced it
My niece got married last week and I was in London to attend the wedding. It seems only yesterday that I was propping her up and burping her after she had finished her bottle. Suddenly, she was getting married. Her husband, my nephew-in-law, is a young British man of Indian descent, and a series of traditional Indian rituals took place at the house of the groom's parents the day before the wedding. The day began with a ritual presided over by a Hindu priest, followed by the Haldi and Mehndi ceremonies, which involve turmeric and henna pastes. There were also lots of delicious treats. I spent a delightful day in that house in the London suburbs, a day saturated with beautiful sights, sounds and smells. For that special occasion, I wore a kurta, a traditional South Asian tunic, and was assured by the groom's family and relatives that I looked handsome in it. They were much too kind. Indian weddings often involve a series of traditional rituals. For Chinese weddings, the traditional 'Three Letters and Six Rites' is a series of ceremonies that were designed to ensure social recognition, family consent and spiritual blessing of the union. The Three Letters refer to important written documents used during the wedding process: the Betrothal Letter, given by the groom's family during the engagement stage to formally propose the union; the Gift Letter, which details the items and quantities presented during the formal gift-exchange ceremony; and the Wedding Letter, presented when the groom comes to collect the bride, symbolising the official transfer of the bride to the groom's household.
